The Postman

Winner of the highest honors for his bestselling second novel, STARTIDE RISING, David Brin has rapidly established himself as one of the decade's premiere new authors of imaginative fiction, THE POSTMAN, a dramatically moving fable of courage, heroism and hope-as urgently compelling as WAR DAY or ALAS, BABYLON-is a major work which confirms. Brin as equal to the foremost authors of popular fiction writing today.

"TO ALL CITIZENS: Let it be known by all now living within the legal boundaries of the United States of America that the people and fundamental institutions of the nation survive. A provisional government is vigorously moving to restore law, public safety and liberty once more to this beloved land....

This is a story of a lie that became the most powerful kind of truth of a man who became a figure of legend. It begins only a few short years from now in the dark days after a limited but devastating war, as a handful of men and women who remain battle disease and hunger, fear and brutality in their struggle to survive,

Gordon Krantz is one such man, an itinerant storyteller who lives by performing the classics in the villages of the Northwest. One night, Gordon borrows the jacket and bag of a long-dead postal worker to protect himself from the cold. In the next village he visits, he finds the old, worn uniform still has power as a symbol of hope for the return of an age now gone.

Unwilling to disillusion the villagers, Gordon accepts their letters to loved ones who may or may not still live, and in doing so creates his greatest tale, of an America on the road to recovery. As he travels westward, his deception takes on a reality of its own, as others come to join him, supported by the strength of a vision he himself only half-believed.

A chronicle of violence and humanity, fear and hope, cruelty and love, The Postman is a moving, triumphant story of one man's heroic dedication to lift mankind from a new dark age.